Course Highlights
This style-based negotiation course will:
- Introduce the Communication Jungle framework and the four communication styles: Lion, Peacock, Dove, and Turtle.
- Help participants identify their own dominant style and understand how it shapes their negotiation approach.
- Share strategies for adapting negotiation tactics to align with each style.
- Provide techniques for building rapport by matching communication approaches to counterpart preferences.
- Develop tools for recognizing and managing style-based conflict triggers.
- Offer practical methods for reaching win-win outcomes by flexing across the style spectrum.
Course Overview
Strong negotiators know that understanding who they are talking to matters as much as knowing what they want to achieve. “Flexing in the Jungle: Style-Based Negotiation Strategies” is a two-hour virtual course that gives participants a practical framework for reading communication styles, adapting their approach, and improving negotiation outcomes by meeting people where they are rather than where it is comfortable to stay.
The course is built on the Communication Jungle framework, developed by Business Training Works and published by Full Court Press, which organizes communication tendencies into four distinct styles: Lion, Peacock, Dove, and Turtle. Each style reflects a different orientation toward pace, task, relationship, and information, and each brings its own strengths, stress points, and triggers into a negotiation. Participants begin with a self-assessment that surfaces their own dominant style before turning outward to examine how each style shows up on the other side of the table.
The course is organized around three practical skills: spotting styles through verbal and nonverbal cues, adapting approach and language to match each style’s communication needs, and managing the friction that arises when styles collide under pressure. Case studies built around real style pairings give participants practice applying all three skills before the session ends.
The following outline highlights some of the course’s key learning points. We can adjust emphasis or drop select elements based on your business objectives. Upon request, we can preview the participant materials with you prior to the session.
Program Objectives
At this program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Identify the four primary communication styles: Lion, Peacock, Dove, and Turtle.
- Recognize their own communication style and understand its impact on negotiations.
- Adapt negotiation strategies to effectively engage with each communication style.
- Build rapport by aligning communication techniques with counterparts’ styles.
- Manage conflicts by identifying style-based triggers and applying resolution techniques.
- Create win-win outcomes by flexibly adapting negotiation practices to meet style preferences.
Workshop Modules
Understanding the Jungle: The Four Communication Styles
The session opens by establishing the Communication Jungle framework and placing it in the context of the long history of style-based thinking, from ancient temperament theory through the modern social styles models that shaped it. Participants will examine what distinguishes the Communication Jungle from other style frameworks, including its emphasis on emotional drivers and its explicit focus on adaptability rather than categorization. The four styles are introduced through the two axes that define them: pace, which distinguishes faster, action-oriented microwave thinkers from slower, deliberate crockpot thinkers; and orientation, which distinguishes task-focused from relationship-focused approaches. Participants will examine the defining characteristics, strengths, stress points, and natural triggers of each style and discuss how those qualities shape behavior at the negotiation table before anyone has made a single ask.
Self-Assessment: Discovering Your Communication Style
This module turns the lens inward. Participants will complete the Communication Jungle self-assessment and review their results, identifying their dominant style and any secondary tendencies. The discussion examines what the assessment reveals about how participants naturally approach negotiations: what they tend to prioritize, where they are likely to create friction without intending to, and which styles they typically find easiest and most difficult to work with. The group will also examine a key principle of the framework: that no style is better or worse than another, that each has genuine strengths in the right context, and that the goal of style awareness is not to change who participants are but to expand the range of how they show up when the situation calls for something different.
Adapting Your Approach: Strategies for Each Style
This module moves from awareness to application. Participants will examine how to adjust language, tone, pace, and nonverbal behavior to sync with each of the four styles. The discussion covers what Lions need from a negotiation partner: directness, efficiency, focus on results, and a pace that respects their time. It covers what Peacocks need: enthusiasm, relationship, recognition, and space for ideas. It covers what Doves need: reassurance, collaboration, empathy, and a tone that does not create threat. And it covers what Turtles need: detail, logic, accuracy, and time to process before committing. A style-spotting exercise gives participants practice reading verbal and nonverbal cues in short scenarios and matching what they observe to the approach most likely to produce a productive conversation.
Building Bridges: Rapport and Relationship Building
This module examines how style awareness functions as a rapport-building tool in negotiation. Participants will work through how to open a negotiation differently depending on the counterpart’s style, how to adjust their listening behavior to signal attentiveness in the way each style receives it, and how to frame proposals and requests so they land well across the spectrum. The discussion also addresses what happens to rapport when style mismatch goes unrecognized: how a Lion reads a Dove’s hedging language as weakness, how a Turtle experiences a Peacock’s energy as pressure, and how a Dove interprets a Lion’s directness as hostility. Case studies featuring four style pairings give participants practice diagnosing a rapport breakdown and identifying the specific adjustments that would have prevented it.
Navigating Conflict: Style-Based Resolution Techniques
Under pressure, style tendencies intensify. Lions become more controlling. Peacocks become more dramatic. Doves become more conflict-avoidant. Turtles become more withdrawn. This module examines how stress amplifies style behavior, how to recognize when a negotiation partner has moved into a stress-driven version of their style, and what response reduces rather than escalates the friction. Participants will work through the triggers that most commonly ignite style-based conflict and examine resolution approaches calibrated to each style. The group will also discuss the importance of distinguishing between style and behavior: understanding why someone responds as they do does not require accepting conduct that is disrespectful or unproductive.
Closing the Deal: Achieving Win-Win Outcomes
The session closes with synthesis and application. Participants will bring the full framework to bear on a negotiation scenario that requires them to read the other party’s style, adapt their approach in real time, manage a moment of friction, and work toward an agreement that accounts for what each style actually needs from a conclusion. The debrief examines what participants adjusted most naturally and where their dominant style pulled them back toward their default. The session ends with a review of the principles of style flexibility and a set of commitments each participant will carry into their next negotiation.
Target Audience
This virtual training program is designed for groups that want to:
- Improve negotiation skills by understanding and adapting to various communication styles.
- Strengthen collaboration and relationship-building in diverse settings.
- Develop effective strategies for managing conflicts and reaching successful negotiation outcomes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Communication Jungle framework?
The Communication Jungle is a communication style framework developed by Business Training Works and published by Full Court Press. It organizes communication tendencies into four styles, represented by four animals: Lion, Peacock, Dove, and Turtle. Each style reflects a distinct set of preferences around pace, task and relationship orientation, and emotional drivers. The framework is designed to be practical and memorable, with an emphasis on adaptability rather than fixed categorization.
Who should attend this course?
This course works well for anyone who negotiates as a regular part of their work and wants to improve outcomes by becoming more responsive to how different people communicate. It is particularly useful for sales professionals, account managers, procurement staff, project leads, and leaders who negotiate across departments. It also works well as a team experience, since shared style awareness tends to improve communication beyond the negotiation context.
Does the course require prior knowledge of communication styles?
No. The self-assessment at the start of the session establishes a working foundation for everyone, regardless of prior exposure to style frameworks. Participants who have used DISC or other style models will find the Communication Jungle familiar in structure and will benefit from the negotiation-specific application.
How long is the session?
This is a two-hour virtual instructor-led course. It can be delivered as a standalone program or as part of a broader negotiation or communication skills curriculum.
Does the course address what to do when styles clash under pressure?
Yes. Navigating style-based conflict is a dedicated module in the course. It examines how stress amplifies style tendencies, what the specific triggers are for each style, and how to calibrate a response that reduces friction rather than increasing it.
Can this course be paired with other negotiation programs?
Yes. Flexing in the Jungle works well as a standalone program and as a complement to longer negotiation courses. Style awareness adds a layer of practical intelligence to any negotiation framework by helping participants understand not just what to do but how to do it with the specific person across the table.